


Something About Christmas Time

by sylviebrettsfanpage



Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: BFFP, Brettsey Writing, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Heartbreak, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28156209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylviebrettsfanpage/pseuds/sylviebrettsfanpage
Summary: Christmas is a special time of year. A time of magic, and a time of faith. Can 2 hopeless romantics set aside the hurt and heartbreak and learn life is more than just the job. Can Christmas bring them together.
Relationships: Sylvie Brett & Matthew Casey, Sylvie Brett & Matthew Casey & Original Character(s), Sylvie Brett/Matthew Casey
Comments: 10
Kudos: 65





	Something About Christmas Time

**Author's Note:**

> Includes all 3 prompts for the Brettsey Christmas Writing Challenge.

Sylvie was a Christmas fanatic. She decorated every inch of the apartment she shared with Cruz and Otis. She baked cookies and delivered them to all her neighbors, and she even cooked special festive meals for the firehouse. If there was one person who would decorate for Christmas on November 1st, it was her. Christmas was her favorite holiday.

This year she could care less about a silly holiday. She’d been nursing the largest heartbreak of her life, hell at this point it was way more than a heartbreak. She had bought more bottles of wine than she had christmas gifts. This was the most unusual thing for her, but in a year like this one, nothing was normal. She made her best efforts to decorate her place for Christmas, but at this point being in her living room for longer than 5 minutes would almost break her. 

Her and Matt had barely exchanged words since the whole thing went to hell. He could tell she was off the rails. He’d seen her in heartbreak before, but she’d never looked this broken. She just looked lifeless, and that was never a word he thought of when he thought of Sylvie Brett. He was internally beating himself up everyday. He was more than infuriated for what he’d done to her. He was so upset that after the year she had already had, that he just added onto her list of grief. It was almost unbearable for him to carry. 

All of 51 had noticed by now. It had been weeks of their Captain and PIC avoiding each other more than the coronavirus. Kidd and Severide had made valiant efforts to get them to talk it out, but clearly that was a task too hard for them. Casey spent the majority of shift in his quarters, he only left for calls or meals. Brett was practically the same, she had been hiding out in the ambo all the time. Obviously ambo has more calls then truck, but to any of their coworkers they had noticed it almost immediately. Stella had tried to drag her out, but heartbroken Sylvie can be a very difficult person to work with. 

It had become more and more prevalent as Christmas drew closer. Normally Sylvie had taken over all the Christmas decorating in the firehouse, but this year she had immediately passed it off to Ritter and Gallo. Almost everyone at 51 had asked Brett what was up, and she thoughtlessly replied ‘I’m fine’, though everyone knew that wasn’t true. People like Sylvie Brett never get down during the holidays, so it was beyond strange to see her avoiding any interaction beyond mealtime. 

This particular morning Sylvie woke up tucked in her bed. She’d been tossing and turning almost the whole night, at this point sleep felt far from possible. Her thoughts were cycling through her head at an alarmingly fast rate. But today was shift and it was only a week and a half til Christmas, so she was going to do something productive today. She’d had enough sadness for a lifetime this year.

She had been shopping the night before and had bought a bunch of food for something she knew would bring a bit of cheer to her coworkers, and to herself as well. It had been years since she had made anything other than sandwiches for the firehouse. I guess the higher rank you are, the less you are required to cook. Her partner did most of the cooking nowadays.

After the last weeks of punching into shift 3 mins before 8:00, today she was coming in early. She had pulled up to the firehouse almost 2 hours before shift was set to start. She had dropped off her bags of food in the common room and nobody seemed to mind since all units had been called to a fire. It had taken her a few minutes to change into her shift clothes, and then she went back to cooking. 

This morning she had planned on making cinnamon rolls, barring complications of course. It had been a while since she had used her mom’s homemade cinnamon roll recipe, but it couldn’t hurt to get back into it. It would take her a few hours to make, but she needed a good excuse to get out of her apartment. Boden had entered through the side door, and was surprised to see his PIC already prepared for shift over an hour before it started.

“Morning Brett,” Boden said as he eyed the paramedic slightly confused at her early appearance.

“Good morning Chief,” Brett replied as she faked a big smile from behind the counter.

“I’m surprised to see you here so early. Any particular reason I’d need to know?” Boden asked.

Of course Boden had almost immediately noticed the strange behavior between the Captain and PIC, but he was buried too far deep in case reports to care about it much. He just figured it would work itself out in a few days, but it had been weeks and nothing. Radio silence.

“I wanted to make a treat for everyone, and it might take some time, so I came early. I’m using my mom’s recipe to make homemade cinnamon rolls.” Brett explained as Chief listened in closely noticing she was 100% using this as a distraction, but getting baked goods out of it couldn’t hurt. 

“That’s very thoughtful of you, I’ll be in my office if you need anything.” Boden replied and Brett sent him another fake, but reassuring (enough) smile.

She got back to her baking. She made and kneaded the dough. Adding ground cinnamon, some brown sugar, and a few cinnamon sticks before she meticulously rolled the dough into the perfect spirals. A few people had popped in for shift, but didn’t seem to notice her, it's a good thing she thought. She cut them into individual servings, and then put them in the oven just as her phone alarm sounded at it being 8.

Ultimately she was hella proud of being productive already today. Mouch was the first to come into the common room, immediately plopping down in his spot, and Tuesday crawled up next to him. Everybody, except Mouch that is, knew Tuesday had found Mouch as her favorite. She obeyed him more than she did her owner, and it was sweet. 

“Hey Mouch,” Herrmann said as a whiff of something really good caught the attention of his nostrils, “Woah, who made that?”

Brett shyly raised her hand as Herrmann peered over to her, and smiled. “Good to see you’ve graced us with your presence, kiddo.”

“Yeah yeah,” Brett taunted, “I just thought you scoundrels could use some real quality breakfast. No offense to cereal, but it has nothing on homemade cinnamon rolls, just saying.”

“Well we appreciate it. I’m sure they will be great,” Herrmann comments as he pours his coffee and then heads back to the app floor to do inventory I presume. 

She hadn’t seen Casey come in yet, though he might have come in through a side door. Obviously they both knew at some point they would have to have a real discussion. Sylvie wasn’t sure when she would be ready for that, or if she’d ever be ready for it. Matt was trying to be considerate to her feelings, and if that meant putting off the conversation until she was ready, he would do so. 

Morning briefing had gone normal like always. Casey always stood by the back doors of the briefing room, while Brett always sat in the front close to Chief. He’d made eye contact with what he hoped to be her blue eyes, but she was looking away, probably deliberately. It had been weeks since they’d even made eye contact.

Brett had gone back to the kitchen after morning briefing, Stella and Mackey had followed her. Mackey had been hanging around her partner a bit more than usual, and it was probably Stella’s doing. Obviously they were very interested in getting to the cinnamon rolls first, but they also wanted to see what was making Brett feel like baking for the house.

“Any reason you felt like making fancy cinnamon rolls for the house today?’ Stella asks her best friend as Mackey also looks warily at Brett.

“I just wanted to do something nice,” Brett replies very bluntly. “It is less than 2 weeks til christmas after all.”

“Are you cooking more today, or am I still on lunch duty?” Mackey asks her partner.

“I have something I’m making later, but you should probably make lunch,” Brett explains as the oven timer beats, and she quickly takes the cinnamon rolls out of the oven.

“Dang girl, how come you never make anything other than sandwiches when you can make stuff like this?” Stella taunts her best friend.

“I cooked all day everyday for my first ex-fiance, so after I wasn’t the newbie at 51, i just stopped making more than sandwiches, simple as that.” Brett explains.

“Just curious, how many ex-fiances do you have?” Gianna asks as Brett giggles.

“Just 2, both very different.” Brett explains as Stella laughs.

“It’s like trying to compare Grant and Kelly, both polar opposites,” Stella jokes.

“Grant?” Mackey asks.

“Her certifiable ex-husband,” Brett explains to the medic.

“Ah okay. Sorry i’m trying to catch up on years of things,” Mackey says.

“Hey don’t feel bad, both of us have a lifetime of drama no one can keep up with,” Stella says.

After the cinnamon rolls had cooled, everyone had swarmed the counter to get one. All of the firefighters were amazed at how good they were, and Brett had gotten a lot of compliments. It made her feel pretty good, but still her heartbreak was overwhelming. She figured Matt would come and get one, but he never did, so she sneakily grabbed one and stashed it away. So maybe just maybe, she would give it to him.

All units had gotten a few calls, but nothing more than a minor house fire. Ambo had gotten more calls than any other company, but that was normal. It was cold outside today, and they had made multiple runs for coffee or hot chocolate in between the calls. Brett had learned that her partner loved Christmas and her family had extensive Christmas traditions. This was somewhat like Brett’s family.

But this year was the first year since she was 1 years old that she hadn’t spent Christmas with her family. She wasn’t too upset because in the end she knew she was keeping her family safe, but it hurt that she would have to spend yet another day at home drinking wine and watching sad tv shows. If this year hadn’t been such a dump, she would be spending Christmas with her parents, and then with her baby sister. But just like everything else this year, it had just turned to crap. 

As a kid she always felt like Christmas was her own personal holiday. Her first Christmas was just after she had turned 2. She was adopted by her parents at the age of 18 months, so she had no memories of her first Christmas, but she always remembered how fun it was to wake up with presents under the tree, and her mom would always make the best food for christmas dinner. It was really upsetting to not be able to go home, but I guess she spared herself from the constant questions about if she was dating.

Now the sun was setting and she still had barely seen Matt the whole shift. But at this point, she’d been semi productive so I guess at this point they should probably have a talk. Even if she cried it was better than putting it off.

She walked into the bunkroom, and saw him through the door of his quarters. He was sitting at his desk twisting a pen, he was staring pretty blankly at a wall.

She knocked on the door, and his head immediately popped up. He looked at her, and she could tell he was very surprised that she was at his door. He nodded and she opened the door and sat down on his bunk.

“I’m sorry,” Sylvie says.

“No, I'm the one who should be sorry. I’m the one who screwed up our friendship,” Matt replies.

“But I kissed you Matt,” Sylvie defends.

“And I kissed you back, and that wasn’t without intent,” Matt explains.

“Matt, can we just go back to the way things were before the crash. Cause I really miss being able to talk to my best friend.” Sylvie asks as Matt glances up at her.

“What if I don’t want things to go back to the way they were before?” Matt replies.

“But it won’t work, we know it,” Sylvie defends.

“How do you know?” Matt inquires.

“Because it never works. I’ve tried and it never worked, so what would make it different this time?” Sylvie says.

“Love, love is what makes it different. I love you Sylvie Brett. That’s why I can’t let things just go back to the way they were,” Matt explains as Sylvie hangs her head not knowing what to say.

“You love Gabby too, Matt.” Sylvie replies.

“Loved her, I loved her. She is my past. A part of me will always love her, but I don’t love her like I love you.” Matt explains as Sylvie just shakes her head.

“Matt it’s not that simple,” Sylvie says.

“Yes it really is. The past is the past, you are the only person I see my future with,” Matt explains.

“How can I be sure. What happens when she comes back wondering why I jumped her ex husband?” Sylvie replies very defensively.

“To hell with Gabby. I deserve to move on, and if she can’t see that, that’s just more points of why we were never meant to be in the end.” Matt replies.

“Matt, I’ve been living in a shadow ever since I came to 51. I get enough grief every time people bring up Shay. It’s like I’ll never be my own person, I’ll always just be Shay’s replacement.” Sylvie explains as her voice grows louder with anger. “And I refuse to be that in a relationship. I will not be Gabby’s replacement. I don’t care if that means we will never be together, because I have to start sticking up for myself.” 

“Sylvie Brett, this is the exact reason why I love you. You are the best mix of sensitive and badass. Gabby could care less about anything I had to say, but you care. How many times have you come to check up on me after a call. Gabby never did that. You are Sylvie Brett, you are not Leslie Shay, and certainly not Gabriela Dawson. I’d never even compare the two of you. The only one who does that is you. Sylvie I want you to find exactly what you want, because that’s what you deserve. And I know no matter what, I will always try to be the man you deserve.” Matt says as soft tears well up in Sylvie’s eyes.

Matt Casey cares more than anyone knows about Sylvie Brett. He sees a future with her, he sees a life with her by his side. And if that’s all he gets, he knows he’ll be happy every day of his life.

“Matt,” Sylvie starts and Matt puts his finger on her lips.

“I’m not finished yet,” Matt says as he stands up and puts his arm around her. “You can cry, it’s okay. I deserve the whooping of a lifetime for what I put you through.”

“I missed you,” Sylvie says as she leans her head against his chest, just as she had after Scott had stopped by the firehouse months and months ago.

“I missed you too,” Matt replies as he kisses her hair. “And I’m sorry, for everything.”

“I saved you a cinnamon roll if you want one. It’s hidden behind the really old leftovers in the fridge. You should heat it up for about 25 seconds.” Sylvie explains as she wipes her tears and sits up looking at Matt.

“I knew you would. Because that’s just who you are,” Matt compliments. And Sylvie just smiles at him.

Isn’t it strange how much one person's life touches the others. A 51 without Sylvie Brett wasn’t one anyone wanted to live in, especially not Matt Casey. And the city of Chicago without Matt Casey definitely wasn’t anything Sylvie Brett wanted to experience.

—————-

4 years ago, if you would’ve told him he’d be spending Christmas like this, he would’ve laughed. But nevertheless every Christmas he got to spend with the love of his life, he would take.

They were gathered around by the fireplace, snuggled up in warm blankets drinking hot cocoa. Sitting on his wife’s lap was their son Andy. And sitting on his lap was Andy’s twin sister Vivian. The 2 year olds were both doppelgängers of their parents. Andy had Matt’s eyes and Vivian had Sylvie’s. 

They’d spent the whole day opening presents and eating cinnamon rolls. The exact ones Sylvie had made for the firehouse years ago. Viv got all the icing all over her face, and Andy licked it all off before eating the actual bread part.

Sylvie’s eyes looking down at Andy was something that broke Matt’s heart every time. She was exceptionally good with the kids they ran into during calls, but she was even better when it came to her own. Andy was such a momma’s boy.

And Viv was the exact depiction of a daddy’s girl. While Sylvie was pregnant with the twins everyone had joked it would be boys because Matt was a boy dad, but he was the best girl dad too. Vivian had the same smile as her mom, something both their kids had inherited. Sylvie’s smile had always melted Matt’s heart, but seeing it in his kid’s was so infectious. 

Christmases had become increasingly fun as the years went on. From the first Christmas they spent at Sylvie’s apartment watching Christmas movies, to the first Christmas with 2 month olds who cried almost the whole time. Every memory he had of Christmas time was something he never could forget.

They were watching the miracle on 34th street. A movie Matt had learned that Sylvie loved during their first Christmas. The kids loved seeing Santa, and the big parade blowups.

This was probably the 4th or 5th time they had watched this particular movie the whole month. And every time this line came up, Viv would look at Sylvie with the same glimmer in her eye.

“Momma say it,” the little girl would say, and Sylvie would sweetly reply.

“Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not too,” Sylvie says as Andy would snuggle into her chest, and Vivian would look up at Matt and make a kissy face planting a kiss on his lips.

Common sense told Sylvie that being with Matt was not the best idea. He was her best friend's ex-husband after all. But Matt had convinced her to have faith in love. Faith that love would always win. Faith that when the world tells you otherwise, that even in the most complicated of situations, love will always prevail.


End file.
